


like a ghost

by onlyeverthus



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dimension-Hopping Rose, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 15:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10126256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyeverthus/pseuds/onlyeverthus
Summary: Rose gets injured while making a jump with the dimension cannon, and meets a man who looks painfully familiar.





	

Rose sees the low fence too late to stop, and bangs her shin against it, flying forward and landing roughly in a heap on the road.

"Got to work on these landings," she mutters to herself. Her knee is stinging, her ankle throbbing, and she grits her teeth as she slowly pushes upward.

There's a sound of running feet coming towards her, and then a male voice saying, "Blimey, that was a bad fall. Are you all right?"

There's something familiar about the voice, so familiar it makes her breath catch in her chest, and she hesitantly lifts her head. Her breath leaves her in a whoosh as she meets a pair of brown eyes that she'd know anywhere, sitting below brown hair that's artfully mussed and above a light smattering of freckles across the cheeks.

"Doctor?" she breathes. The man's expression turns confused, and he shakes his head.

"No, I'm not a doctor, but I can take you to one, if you think you need it."

"No," Rose says, swallowing hard. "Sorry, got confused for a second."

The man kneels to help her up, and she closes her eyes at his hand under her elbow, his chest against her arm.

"What's your name?" he asks.

"Rose. And – and yours?"

"John. John Smith. Dreadfully boring, I know."

Rose gives a shaky laugh, even as her chest aches, and John steps back to give her a onceover. She sees he's wearing not a suit, but jeans and a jumper, though the trainers on his feet make her heart skip another beat.

"Your knee looks pretty bad, why don't you come back to my flat so I can patch you up? I'm just up this way."

"No, I'm fine, really –"

"I won't force you, but I'd feel a lot better if I could at least get a bandage on it."

Rose hesitates, and then nods, not really in the mood to argue. They start to walk forward, but her ankle gives out from under her, and she stumbles to the side.

"Whoa!" John exclaims, rushing to grab her. "Maybe take a look at that ankle, too."

Rose nods again, not trusting herself to speak, and they start down the sidewalk towards a block of flats. He takes her up and into a small, but nicely furnished flat, and tells her to have a seat at the table while he disappears into what she assumes is a bedroom. He returns a couple minutes later with some things in his arms, and sets them on the table before kneeling in front of her.

Rose watches as he eases the torn fabric of her pants aside so he can peer at her knee, and then he shakes his head.

"D'you mind if I cut this fabric away a bit? The trousers are already ruined, and I can't see the cut well enough to clean it properly."

"I was gonna chuck 'em in the bin when I got home anyway," Rose says, and he laughs as he pushes to stand. He steps into the kitchen and retrieves a pair of scissors from inside a drawer, and kneels in front of her again, carefully snipping around the tear.

She watches him work, her heart thrumming in her chest. Everything about him is so familiar, and it's like some cruel joke that he's her Doctor, but at the same time, _not_. He's just some human version of the man she loves, the man she's desperately trying to get back to. Some human version who has no idea who she is.

A hiss sneaks past her lips when he touches some antiseptic to the scrape on her knee, and he looks up at her, his eyebrows knitted together as he murmurs an apology. She shakes her head, trying to smile, but the concern in his eyes and the way he says, 'Sorry,' is like a knife to the heart.

He fixes the bandage to her knee, and then looks up at her again.

"Okay, now, let's have a look at that ankle." He carefully takes her leg in his hands and lifts it so her foot rests against his knee. Her fingers grip the back of the chair, and she swallows hard as he rolls her trouser leg up.

"Does that hurt?" he asks as he gently prods her ankle.

"Little bit," she replies, biting her lip.

"Doesn't look bruised, and doesn't feel broken, from my limited experience, but I'll wrap it up just in case, and we'll put some ice on it for a bit."

Rose nods, and John stands again, bringing another chair around and setting a small pillow on it so Rose can prop her foot up. He picks up an elastic bandage from the table, and gently wraps it around Rose's ankle, securing it in place before heading back into the kitchen for some ice.

"Thanks," Rose murmurs as he carefully lays the bag of ice on her ankle. "Not many people who'd invite a stranger into their home and take care of them like this."

"Well, I saw you fall," he says with a shrug as he brings another chair around so he can sit next to her, "and something just… told me I needed to help."

"Something?" Rose repeats, her mouth suddenly dry.

"Yeah, just something in me said, 'hey, that girl needs you.' Guess it was lucky I was walking by."

"Yeah," Rose whispers, swallowing hard. He's so close, and she's staring at him now, can't help herself, because he just looks like the Doctor, and it's not fair that he isn't.

"Why d'you keep looking at me like that?" he asks with a short laugh.

"Like what?" Rose says quickly.

"Like – like you've seen a ghost."

"You just look like someone I knew once," Rose replies, tears welling in her eyes. "Someone I –"

There's not much space between them at all, and Rose starts to lean forward, but jumps when the door opens suddenly. She twists around to see a pretty, petite brunette step into the flat, and John hurries to stand.

"Oh!" the other woman says in surprise. "John, who's this?"

"Rose, she took a bit of a nasty fall outside, so I brought her in to patch her up. Rose, this is, um, my girlfriend, Cl –"

"I should go," Rose interrupts, and pushes to stand. "I've intruded long enough –"

"No, hey, you should rest your ankle some more," John says, stepping towards her again.

"It's fine, really," Rose says, limping past the bewildered girlfriend towards the door. "It doesn't hurt that bad now."

"If you're sure," John replies uncertainly.

"Yeah. 'm fine. Thank you, really."

Rose hurries from the flat as fast as she can, and makes it outside and around the corner before she lets the tears come. She bangs her palms against the steel door of a garage, and swears loudly before leaning forward and bowing her head. Her tears dot the pavement, and she sniffles hard, trying to catch her breath, trying to make the unbearable pain in her chest go away.

After a moment, she turns around and presses her back to the door, tipping her head up. Her tears slowly stop, and she sniffles once more before leaning down to rip the bandage from her knee. She lifts her leg to unwrap the elastic from around it, and carries both to a nearby rubbish bin. The bloodied bandage from her knee gets tossed inside, but she hesitates with the elastic in her hands, and then, feeling utterly foolish, she stuffs it into the pocket of her jacket.

The device around her wrist beeps, and she shoves her sleeve up to tap the blinking light.

A split second later, she's back at Torchwood, and people swarm all around her as she hobbles off the platform.

"Hey, hey," Mickey says, fighting his way through the crowd of people. "How'd it go?"

Rose just stares at him, and he drops his gaze.

"Hey, you're injured. You should get to the infirmary –"

"I just want to go home," she says, pushing past him.

"What happened?" he calls after her. "Was it a dangerous jump?"

"Yeah," she calls back, turning to face him again. "It – it was a dangerous place. Mark it as off-limits. We can't ever go back there."

"Got it," Mickey replies, and Rose turns again, chin quivering as she walks from the room as fast as she can.


End file.
